The development of father–child attachment: associations between adult attachment representations, recollections of childhood experiences and caregiving

Abstract

The association between fathers' adult attachment representations and their recollections of childhood experiences with their caregiving quality with their eight-month-old infants and with father–infant attachment classification was examined in a longitudinal study of 117 fathers and their infants. Sensitive caregiving was related to secure-autonomous classification in the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), hostile caregiving was related to fathers' dismissing and unresolved attachment, and emotional disengagement and role-reversed caregiving were both related to fathers' unresolved attachment. Childhood experiences of parental pressure to achieve were related to fathers' hostile and role-reversed caregiving and low sensitivity, independent of AAI classification. However, fathers' childhood experiences of maternal neglect were related to high-quality caregiving. It was also found that fathers' secure-autonomous AAI classification was related to secure father–child attachment in the Strange Situation Paradigm, and this relation was mediated by sensitive caregiving.